Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen) got off to a good start to the second stage of the Rally Germany by taking the scratch in the new 14,73km Fresein-Westrich special. The Norwegian was one of the only ones to choose the soft tires when the rain fell on the course and set a time of 9'02''3 to beat Sébastien Ogier (Volkswagen) by 1''5 and Dani Sordo (Hyundai) of 3''8. Ott Tänak (Ford) follows at 5”5 and is ahead of his rival Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën) by more than five seconds. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) drops more than six seconds to the leader.

Andreas Mikkelsen now has a lead of 5”8 over his teammate Ogier, while Thierry Neuville follows at 12”3. Dani Sordo returns to four seconds from the top three. Ott Tänak now has a lead of almost 17 seconds over Stéphane Lefebvre.

Lefebvre drops almost 6s to Tänak and finds himself 16″8 behind the Estonian. “It was very complicated. » The Citroën driver nevertheless used his 4 soft tires.

Tänak ranks 5″3 behind Mikkelsen. The Estonian remains well established in 5th position even if he has to watch Lefebvre.

Good time from Sordo who is less than 4s behind Mikkelsen. By gaining 2″6 from Neuville, the Spaniard is back to 4″2 behind his teammate.

Neuville ranks 6″4 behind Mikkelsen and finds himself 6″5 behind Ogier in the general classification. “I went out a little but I didn't lose too much time. I have a mix of tires and I would have needed soft compounds. »

Paddon fails 15s from the provisional reference. “We only have one soft tire when we should have taken 4. I can't make any mistakes today and I'm going carefully. » The Hyundai driver finds himself 2 minutes from the lead of the race.

Ogier: “I made a mix of soft and hard and it wasn’t the right one. It was dry when I left but it started to rain…”

Ogier sets the first time in 9'03"8. Mikkelsen improves the time by 1”5.

Ogier set off on the Freisen-Westrich special, a new course for the crews where the surface was soaked by rain.  

The drivers opted for different strategies this morning: the M-Sport and Mikkelsen drivers have 5 soft tires, Lefebvre 4 soft and 1 hard, Sordo and Paddon 4 hard and 1 soft, Neuville and Ogier 3 hard and 2 soft and Latvala 4 hard and 2 soft.

Hello and welcome to the live commentary of the second stage of the 2016 Rally Germany.